The last three days I had guide trips at Paulina. Wednesday was so darn good! Thursday was good and Friday was OK, but a lack of wind (which we had in abundance the other 2 days) got the surface water up to 71 in the afternoon.

Besides a Hummingbird Fish Finder on my boat, I use a portable handheld Fish Hawk water thermometer that takes and stores water temps every 5 feet. When water temps were 70 at the surface, down 10 feet it was mid 60’s, down 20 feet it was mid 50’s! When the wind blows, that stirs up the water and allows that cooler water reserve to mix at the top. When the wind stays calm the surface area acts like a giant mirror and a solar collector. It is bummer, but it can be overcome by going early or coming back to the lake later in the evening. Also, choosing to fish deeper water in the following ways (1) Deep indicator fishing with 20-25 leaders. (2) Type 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 full sink lines are productive and will easily get your fly to that 10 to 20 foot level, and deeper if you need them to. Have you tried the deep dangle on a type 7 or 8 line with a couple of chironomids? That is cool. Somedays it works better than the indicator rig, but be prepared for both. Yesterday we hooked some nice fish on type 5 and type 8 full sink lines stripping streamers and damsel nymphs off the ledges and weed beds.

This week we caught fish on Beetles, Ants, Hoppers, Purple Chubby’s, Damsel nymphs, Sheila Sculpin, Callibaetis Nymph, Red 2 Bit’s and Pheasant Tails.